October 22, 2024 • 26 mins
Meet Kina Phillips, part of the grass roots effort in Florida to fight cane burning and encourage the sugar companies to embrace green-harvesting methods. Then, Celeste digs deeper into how the pending Farm Bill affects the cost of sugar.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
My name is Keina Green Phillips.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I am a resident of South Bay, Florida.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
My family is six.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Generations in the city of South Bay. I am one
of the founding members of Stop the Burn campaign and
I have been a part of this campaign since the
creation of it.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Keena Phillips has always been part of a sugar household
growing up. Her father worked for the sugar companies and
her husband works there now too. She has fond memories
of running through the sugar fields with her brothers during
cain burning season, chasing the rabbits that were flushed out
by the fire. They'd catch them and roast them for dinner.
The smoke and ash that filled the air during the
(00:56):
burning season, that was normal.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
It was just a part of life.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
We had clotheslines in the back of our house.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Most people did, and we will hang our clothes out,
and man, you hang on white clothes out and they burning,
you might as well wash them clothes over again because
all other black ash is gonna fall on the white
clothes and it's like black smut. So you got to
know when hanging the white clothes out and make sure
(01:26):
that they're not burning around that time, because it will
mess up your clothes, mess up.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And land in your hair.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
And you could tell, cause even when you wash your hair,
your hair is so dirty because.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Of all of the black ash that is falling in
your head. So that's why we call it snow black snow.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Keena started to notice that everyone around her had respiratory problems, friends, family,
patients of the medical clinic where she worked, and she
really took notice of the effects of king burning after
her daughter had a baby.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Your son was healthy, little boy, you know, no problems
at all.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We bring him home and then you know, you go
different places, you know, and where he was born during
the time of the sugar burning, and so we take
him outside and then he struggled to breathe, and.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So we like, he can't like, he's struggling to breathe.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So we take him to the doctor and the doctor
have to put him on treatment and they have to
put him on the machine, and so they send a
machine home and we have to put him on this
machine and stuff, and I'm like, okay, this is a problem.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I'm celest ted Lee And this is the second of
three bonus episodes of Big Sugar. Keena Phillips joined the
stop the burn campaign, a grassroots effort backed by the
local chapter of the Sierra Club. She started speaking out
(03:09):
against caine burning and encouraging the sugar companies to embrace
green harvesting methods instead. See Burning caine is the fastest
and cheapest way to harvest sugarcane. That's why big sugar
farms like it. But it's far healthier to green harvest,
using machines to strip the stock and gather the cane.
Green harvesting has been adopted in countries like Brazil, the
(03:32):
largest sugar producer in the world, and rather than burning
the unwanted material, farmers there have found a secondary market
selling it to make biodegradable products like paper goods, cattle feed,
and biofuel. But Keena's activism had consequences. The sugar industry
took notice, and so did some of her neighbors and friends.
(03:53):
She stopped being included in community events. She said her
husband was called into work at his sugar company and
warned to tell his wife to stop speaking out. And
after a city meeting, Keene says a commissioner explained why
he was sighting with the sugar companies, and he.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Said, well, you gotta understand that you got to have
a seat at the table. And I said, seat at
the table. He said yes, If you don't have a
seat at the table, you don't eat.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Did you starve?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I say, well, what if they're not serving what's on
my diet?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And he was like, man, you don't get it.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I said no, Why you can't build your own table,
Why you can't stand for what's right?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Why you can't stand against injustice?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Cause he said, what you're saying is right because I
grew up in the household. Why I had five or
six sisters and brothers and all of them had asthma.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
All of them suffer with it.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So you're gonna go sit at a table that you
know affected your sisters and brothers because you want to eat.
I'm like, I need you to make it make sense.
And so eventually that table.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
That he sat at, they snatched the chair from up.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Under room because he was no longer beneficial to them.
So we have to be mindful of who we come
and cohoops with, because you only as good as long as.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You are beneficial.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
How much are you willing to do to stay at
that corrupt table? But sometimes people at any smaller towns
are selling their souls during the whole community under the.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
Bus for status for a few couple dollars for trips,
because of fear of losing a job, like come on,
people losing their lives.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
People are suffering around here.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Keina believes this is her mission in life, that this
is her divine purpose. She says, no matter what lies
are spread about her, or how often her character and
intentions are questioned, She's not giving up.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I don't just fight this fight.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So my daughters and my husband and my grandson, and
those are part of my ministry.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Breathe. No, I fight this fight for those that fight
against me can breed.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
That the sugar industry people can breathe, That everybody who
is affected by this can breathe.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Although the negative health effects from caine burning are well
known to residents and doctors in the Glades, there hasn't
been scientific data to back it up. But there's a
new study showing the causal relationship between long term exposure
to particulate matter caused by cane burning and respiratory illnesses
like asthma. The study was conducted by researcher and Florida
(07:16):
A and M Professor miche La Sau and supported by
the environmental group Friends of the Everglades.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
We also found that asthma incinet rates are significantly higher
during the burning peod, which is October to March contard
to the non burning period.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
In the study, Doctor la Show analyzed a bunch of
things physician diagnosed asthma data along with seasonal weather information,
and he looked at the concentration of an air pollutant
that can be inhaled into the lungs called PM two
point five. Inhaling a lot of PM two point five
can increase the risk of developing heart disease asthma, and
(07:59):
among pregnant women it can lead to low birth weight.
Speaker 7 (08:02):
We found that new as MY cases are projected to
occur in soft Throwida if practices continue unchanged. We also
found that the most effective areas are the law income
predominantly African American and Hispanic communities where most sugar cane
(08:23):
is gone.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Doctor Show says there's one finding from the study that
has stuck with him the age of those most affected.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
The children.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
On the thirteen they made up forty twenty six percent
of the ASMA cases. This is excellent important in terms
of public health.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Like Kina, doctor Show says switching to green harvesting practices
would have a positive impact on the lives of Glade's
residents and perhaps the findings from his study can help
those whose flight has been ignored.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
The results showed the need for South Florida polustmakers and
all stakeholders of players, including residents in those areas often
do not have a voice at the negotiation table, to
collaborate to find a cost effective and sustainable alternative practice.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
In May of this year, Florida A and M joined
the study initiated by Tuskegee University and US Sugar focused
on the impacts of sugarcane farming across the Glades region
in Florida. US Sugar provided a one hundred thousand dollars
grant and noted that quote this collaboration marks a significant
step toward a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of our
(09:50):
rural communities and sustainable agricultural practices. During the reporting of
this series, we reached out to representatives from the sugar
companies more than a dozen times, and two sugar farmers themselves.
We've had so many questions about their practices, the impacts
(10:13):
on local communities and about the benefits they reap from
the farm bill, but none would sit down and talk
to us until now.
Speaker 8 (10:25):
My current title is Representative Rick Roth. I'm a state
representing District ninety four, entirely in Palm Beach County. It's
the largest county. It is also the district that has
most of the agricultural area includes my hometown of Belglade.
I'm a vegetable, sugar, cane and rice farmer and my
other life president of Roth Farms for about thirty five years,
(10:50):
been a farmer for forty five years. Farm and the
greatest place to farm in the United States called the
Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake of Kotobi Bellglie, Florida.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Rick Ross's family has been farming in Bellglade since nineteen
forty eight. His father started by growing radishes, parsley, and lettuce.
Speaker 8 (11:09):
But in the nineteen sixties, thanks to a guy we
all know, Fidel Castro, USDA, came to Belglade, Florida and
encouraged farmers to grow sugarcane. We don't want to buy
any more of that common as sugar ha ha, So
the sugar industry took off in the early nineteen sixties.
So my father was a founding member of a sugar
(11:32):
mill called Sugarcane Growers Cooperative of Florida. We've been growing
sugarcane since nineteen sixty one. I tell people as a joke,
if you're a farmer in Belglade and you don't grow
sugarcane and sweetcorn, you're just stupid.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
They're two thousand acres of sugarcane can't compare to the
size of Florida Crystals, which farms two hundred thousand acres
of sugar in Florida. But Rickross is intimately involved in
Florida sugar, both as a state representative involved in agriculture
policy and as a member of the Sugar Farmers Cooperative. Today,
(12:10):
sugarcane is the biggest and most lucrative crop grown on
the Wroth farm.
Speaker 8 (12:16):
The sugarcane industry is the lynch pin of the vegetable industry.
Vegetable production is very competitive and the price changes daily,
if not weekly. Sugarcane prices are very stable over a
long period of time. It's easier to plan and figure out,
you know, can you make money growing sugarcane with the
(12:38):
current market prices in the system, So sugarcane is a
bond market. Vegetables is the stock market. It fluctuates all
the time, So sugarcane really provides the economic stability. My
bankers love me not because I grow vegetables. They love
me because I grow sugarcane, and I pretty much can estimate,
(13:00):
within a certain amount of reason, you know how much
revenue I'm going to get every year. That makes my
banker happy.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Rick Roth's bankers are happy because sugar prices are guaranteed.
That's in the farm bill. And I want to take
a minute here to explain this because it has a
huge impact on our lives, especially our grocery bills.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
You're feeling it when you're purchasing goods that have sugar
in them, probably more than we all realize. Quite frankly,
sugar is in so many different commodities, and sugars really
has the highest trade protection of any US good, agriculture
or non agricultural.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Kim Janopolis works at the US Government Accountability Office or GAO.
She's a director with their International Affairs and Trade team.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
We pretty much audit the rest of the government. Wherever
the US dollar goes, we go.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
We reached out to Kim because the massive Farm bill
is up for renewal in Congress and it includes the
US sugar program, which guarantees billions to the sugar industry billions.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
The US sugar program has actually been around for hundreds
of years, almost since the revolution.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Back in October, the GAO reviewed the program.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It's got a couple of very key pieces that help
manage the price of sugar and that in turn supports
the US sugar producers and processors. So the first part
to know about is loans. So the US government backs
loans to sugar processors, who in turn provide payments to
(14:37):
sugar producers. And the key part of these loans that's
important to understand is that if the loans were to
be defaulted on, the processors could provide the sugar to
pay back the loans. That helps the price of sugar
domestically stay higher, because if it drops too low, there's
(15:02):
no incentive for the sugar to be processed and sold.
The sugar processors would just use that sugar as collateral
and give that back to the government instead of the
money that they owe on their loans.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Another important part of the sugar program has to do
with international trade and tariffs.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
We have to import sugar because the US does not
produce enough sugar to meet all of the domestic needs.
So when we import sugar, there's a concern that other
countries will sell the sugar to the US at a
rate that's lower than what US producers are getting, so
US producers would lose out.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So to protect the US sugar industry, the government has
another type of price support in the form of tariff
rate quotas. Those quotas determine how much sugar can be
imported from Mexico, for example, at a very low tariff.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Rate, and so there's a significant disincentive for other countries
to send their sugar to the United States because it
would be so expensive. But what that particular tool does,
it also increases the domestic price for sugar because there's
a limited amount of supply, and so supply and demand.
(16:19):
Back to economics one oh one.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
And that in a nutshell is the sugar program. Within
the Farm Bill, we restrict how much foreign sugar can
be sold in the US, and we prop up the
price of domestic sugar. And because of those price support systems,
US sugar farmers are more profitable than farmers in other countries.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
A lot more.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Right now, as we're recording this, the global price of
sugar is about twenty two cents per pound, but in
the US it's forty one cents per pound. And guess
who's baring that cost.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
We found the impact on consumers even outweighs the benefit
to producers and processors. And according to some studies, the
program costs consumers an estimated two point five billion to
three point five billion per year. That's every single year,
(17:14):
billions of dollars.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
You heard that right. The US sugar program benefits sugar
producers more than it benefits consumers. Some economists estimate that
the Funhole family, which owns Florida Crystals, benefits from the
sugar program to the tune of over one hundred and
fifty million dollars a year. It's why they've been nicknamed
the first Family of corporate welfare. This is an antiquated
(17:39):
policy in the Farm Bill that's up for debate right
now in Congress. And here's the thing. The Farm Bill
is only reviewed once every five years. For the sugar industry,
it is the single most important piece of legislation by far,
and it's a great deal for them, but for you
and me. That's why I was so interested talk to
(18:00):
sugar farmer Rick Roth. I wondered how he justifies the
high costs we pay for sugar. So Americans pay more
for sugar than just about anywhere else in the world.
The prices of sugar here are high.
Speaker 8 (18:14):
The reason for that true, that's not true. Well, it's
true to some extent.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
The big sugar growers the United States make a massive profit.
So we still have the person walking through their grocery
store and picking up a pound of sugar, and that
sugar is going to cost them significantly more than it
does in almost any other industrialized nation.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And that's not true.
Speaker 8 (18:37):
That's not true.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Well, as of December twenty twenty three, Americans are paying
almost twice the cost of the international price of sugar. Now,
the sugar program as it exists in the Farm Bill
especially benefits big companies, people like the Funhul family who
own Florida Crystals. It's estimated that the sugar program in
(18:59):
the Farm Bill is worth somewhere between one hundred and
fifty to two hundred million dollars to Florida Crystals. I
think we can both agree that the sugar program is
designed to benefit big producers over small producers.
Speaker 8 (19:17):
Do you agree with that? I agree with that. I
agree the bigger you are, the lower your overhead costs are.
And that's what every farmer is trying to do is
maximize their production and minimize their costs. And as you
get bigger, you are able to do that. So it
does benefit the big producers, but there's no way to
(19:40):
fix that. What the sugar program is is a anti
dumping price support program. One of the big problems you
can easily understand is who is the biggest producer of sugar.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
In the world.
Speaker 8 (19:56):
Brazil.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yes, so.
Speaker 8 (19:59):
Brazil you can produce sugar cheaper than anybody in the
world because they're so big. When you're really really big,
your cost of production go down. So Brazil could dump
sugar into the United States without a sugar program and
in five years there would be no sugar produced in
the United States. So the purpose of the sugar program
(20:20):
is to prevent dumping price of sugar.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
So are you saying that the sugar program and their
large sugar producers are not the reason why Americans pay
more in the grocery store for our sugar.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
What I am saying, is the minimum guarantee price is
at the cost near or at the cost of production.
Why are we not selling sugar in the grocery store
If the guarantee price is nineteen cents a pound, why
are we not selling it for nineteen cents a pound.
You have to refine it, you have to deliver it
(20:59):
of the supermarket going to make a profit. All those
factors are in there. What you're failing to even want
to think about is that in the current scenario world
supply of sugar, the price of sugar is over twenty
cents a pound, which is the minimum guaranteed price, and
the domestic price is forty cents a pound. Because the
(21:20):
cost of distribution and sales and everything else is the
price of sugar right now in the farm bill is
having no impact on what you're paying in the grocery store.
It's other factors. If you were an economist, you would
understand that.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Okay, I'm not an economist, but neither is Rick Roth.
That's why we reached out to Kim Janopolis at the
Government Accountability Office in the first place. I wanted to
fact check some things with her. Rick Roth said, the
farm bill has no impact on the price of sugar
in the grocery store.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
We found that US, whether it's a consumer you and
I buying sugar in the grocery store, or a confection
or making candy or whatever, is paying twice the world
price for sugar in the United States because of the
US sugar program and these price supports and other benefits
(22:18):
that the sugar program gets through the US government and
through the Farm Bill.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Rick Roth also said that the sugar policy isn't about
propping up US sugar prices. It's actually just preventing other
countries from dumping their sugar here at really low costs.
So would the US market get flooded with really cheap
foreign sugar if the farm bill was significantly changed.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
That's actually not possible. That's not possible. So keep in
mind we have we the US have these agreements with
different countries, and they can't just all of a sudden
one day decide, oh, we're going to double our exports
to the US and there's going to be no prohibition
against that. I mean, they could export more, but it
would be at a significantly higher terror freight. So it's
(23:06):
really not in their best interest because then you know
that their sugar is going to be much much more expensive.
They couldn't just come in and dump all of their sugar.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
In other words, the US has trade agreements with countries
that cover foreign imports to protect our domestic producers. So
even if the farm bill were changed, US sugar farmers
would still be protected.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
There are thousands of sugar producers in the US, and
like I said, this is the most supported program agricultural
or non agricultural. So it's a fairly profitable industry to
be in to be a sugar farmer.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
So Florida state representative and sugar farmer Rick Roth and
I agreed to disagree, but I appreciated that he shared
his views Because the big sugar corporations they don't talk. Instead,
they work behind the scenes. They give to local churches
in Keena Phillips neighborhood to win over residents and local politicians,
(24:08):
and they spread their cash across Washington, d C. You
remember that not only is the Fonhul family famous for
generously donating to both Republican and Democratic members of Congress,
they frequently host fundraisers for presidential candidates. In twenty sixteen,
they held fundraisers for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
(24:30):
According to press reports, peppivun Huel hosted an event for
former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump just hours after
his guilty verdict came down. The billionaires in that room
helped raise millions for Trump's super pac and the Fonnhull
brothers do more than just contribute cash, they call in favors.
(24:51):
In November of twenty twenty two, the US Customs and
Border Patrol issued a ban on sugar imported from the
Dominican Republic by a company called sen Romana over allegations
of forced labor. The ban was a big deal. Not
only did Centron Romana export nearly two hundred million pounds
of sugar to the States, but the company is owned
(25:12):
in part by the Florida based Fanhol family.
Speaker 9 (25:20):
Next time, there's nothing that you can see with your
eyes sometimes when you look out at these workers, these
brigades working, that distinguishes it from what it looked like
on a plantation in the south of the United States
one hundred years ago. So it's really a sad and
hard situation for these workers.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
This episode of Big Sugar is produced by Weekday Fund Productions.
Imagine Audio and Rococo Punch for iHeartMedia. The series is
hosted by me Celesteedley. Big Sugar is produced by Jeff
Eisenman at Weekday Fund Productions and Andrea Assoahe and Catherine
Fenlosa at Rococo Punch. It's executive produced by Karra Welker,
(26:09):
Nathan Kloke and Marie Brenner. The story editor is Emily Foreman.
Sound design and mixing by James Trout. Original music composed
by Troy McCubbin at Alloy Tracks. Additional music by Nicholas Alexander.
Special thanks to novel Our production partner on episodes one
through nine, and Alec Wilkinson, author of the book Big Sugar.
(26:31):
Big Sugar is based on the Vanity Fair article in
the Kingdom of Big Sugar by Marie Brenner
My name is Keina Green Phillips.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I am a resident of South Bay, Florida.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
My family is six.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Generations in the city of South Bay. I am one
of the founding members of Stop the Burn campaign and
I have been a part of this campaign since the
creation of it.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Keena Phillips has always been part of a sugar household
growing up. Her father worked for the sugar companies and
her husband works there now too. She has fond memories
of running through the sugar fields with her brothers during
cain burning season, chasing the rabbits that were flushed out
by the fire. They'd catch them and roast them for dinner.
The smoke and ash that filled the air during the
(00:56):
burning season, that was normal.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
It was just a part of life.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
We had clotheslines in the back of our house.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Most people did, and we will hang our clothes out,
and man, you hang on white clothes out and they burning,
you might as well wash them clothes over again because
all other black ash is gonna fall on the white
clothes and it's like black smut. So you got to
know when hanging the white clothes out and make sure
(01:26):
that they're not burning around that time, because it will
mess up your clothes, mess up.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And land in your hair.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
And you could tell, cause even when you wash your hair,
your hair is so dirty because.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Of all of the black ash that is falling in
your head. So that's why we call it snow black snow.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Keena started to notice that everyone around her had respiratory problems, friends, family,
patients of the medical clinic where she worked, and she
really took notice of the effects of king burning after
her daughter had a baby.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Your son was healthy, little boy, you know, no problems
at all.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We bring him home and then you know, you go
different places, you know, and where he was born during
the time of the sugar burning, and so we take
him outside and then he struggled to breathe, and.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So we like, he can't like, he's struggling to breathe.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So we take him to the doctor and the doctor
have to put him on treatment and they have to
put him on the machine, and so they send a
machine home and we have to put him on this
machine and stuff, and I'm like, okay, this is a problem.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I'm celest ted Lee And this is the second of
three bonus episodes of Big Sugar. Keena Phillips joined the
stop the burn campaign, a grassroots effort backed by the
local chapter of the Sierra Club. She started speaking out
(03:09):
against caine burning and encouraging the sugar companies to embrace
green harvesting methods instead. See Burning caine is the fastest
and cheapest way to harvest sugarcane. That's why big sugar
farms like it. But it's far healthier to green harvest,
using machines to strip the stock and gather the cane.
Green harvesting has been adopted in countries like Brazil, the
(03:32):
largest sugar producer in the world, and rather than burning
the unwanted material, farmers there have found a secondary market
selling it to make biodegradable products like paper goods, cattle feed,
and biofuel. But Keena's activism had consequences. The sugar industry
took notice, and so did some of her neighbors and friends.
(03:53):
She stopped being included in community events. She said her
husband was called into work at his sugar company and
warned to tell his wife to stop speaking out. And
after a city meeting, Keene says a commissioner explained why
he was sighting with the sugar companies, and he.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Said, well, you gotta understand that you got to have
a seat at the table. And I said, seat at
the table. He said yes, If you don't have a
seat at the table, you don't eat.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Did you starve?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I say, well, what if they're not serving what's on
my diet?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And he was like, man, you don't get it.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I said no, Why you can't build your own table,
Why you can't stand for what's right?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Why you can't stand against injustice?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Cause he said, what you're saying is right because I
grew up in the household. Why I had five or
six sisters and brothers and all of them had asthma.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
All of them suffer with it.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So you're gonna go sit at a table that you
know affected your sisters and brothers because you want to eat.
I'm like, I need you to make it make sense.
And so eventually that table.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
That he sat at, they snatched the chair from up.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Under room because he was no longer beneficial to them.
So we have to be mindful of who we come
and cohoops with, because you only as good as long as.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You are beneficial.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
How much are you willing to do to stay at
that corrupt table? But sometimes people at any smaller towns
are selling their souls during the whole community under the.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
Bus for status for a few couple dollars for trips,
because of fear of losing a job, like come on,
people losing their lives.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
People are suffering around here.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Keina believes this is her mission in life, that this
is her divine purpose. She says, no matter what lies
are spread about her, or how often her character and
intentions are questioned, She's not giving up.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I don't just fight this fight.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So my daughters and my husband and my grandson, and
those are part of my ministry.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Breathe. No, I fight this fight for those that fight
against me can breed.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
That the sugar industry people can breathe, That everybody who
is affected by this can breathe.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Although the negative health effects from caine burning are well
known to residents and doctors in the Glades, there hasn't
been scientific data to back it up. But there's a
new study showing the causal relationship between long term exposure
to particulate matter caused by cane burning and respiratory illnesses
like asthma. The study was conducted by researcher and Florida
(07:16):
A and M Professor miche La Sau and supported by
the environmental group Friends of the Everglades.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
We also found that asthma incinet rates are significantly higher
during the burning peod, which is October to March contard
to the non burning period.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
In the study, Doctor la Show analyzed a bunch of
things physician diagnosed asthma data along with seasonal weather information,
and he looked at the concentration of an air pollutant
that can be inhaled into the lungs called PM two
point five. Inhaling a lot of PM two point five
can increase the risk of developing heart disease asthma, and
(07:59):
among pregnant women it can lead to low birth weight.
Speaker 7 (08:02):
We found that new as MY cases are projected to
occur in soft Throwida if practices continue unchanged. We also
found that the most effective areas are the law income
predominantly African American and Hispanic communities where most sugar cane
(08:23):
is gone.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Doctor Show says there's one finding from the study that
has stuck with him the age of those most affected.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
The children.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
On the thirteen they made up forty twenty six percent
of the ASMA cases. This is excellent important in terms
of public health.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Like Kina, doctor Show says switching to green harvesting practices
would have a positive impact on the lives of Glade's
residents and perhaps the findings from his study can help
those whose flight has been ignored.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
The results showed the need for South Florida polustmakers and
all stakeholders of players, including residents in those areas often
do not have a voice at the negotiation table, to
collaborate to find a cost effective and sustainable alternative practice.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
In May of this year, Florida A and M joined
the study initiated by Tuskegee University and US Sugar focused
on the impacts of sugarcane farming across the Glades region
in Florida. US Sugar provided a one hundred thousand dollars
grant and noted that quote this collaboration marks a significant
step toward a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of our
(09:50):
rural communities and sustainable agricultural practices. During the reporting of
this series, we reached out to representatives from the sugar
companies more than a dozen times, and two sugar farmers themselves.
We've had so many questions about their practices, the impacts
(10:13):
on local communities and about the benefits they reap from
the farm bill, but none would sit down and talk
to us until now.
Speaker 8 (10:25):
My current title is Representative Rick Roth. I'm a state
representing District ninety four, entirely in Palm Beach County. It's
the largest county. It is also the district that has
most of the agricultural area includes my hometown of Belglade.
I'm a vegetable, sugar, cane and rice farmer and my
other life president of Roth Farms for about thirty five years,
(10:50):
been a farmer for forty five years. Farm and the
greatest place to farm in the United States called the
Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake of Kotobi Bellglie, Florida.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Rick Ross's family has been farming in Bellglade since nineteen
forty eight. His father started by growing radishes, parsley, and lettuce.
Speaker 8 (11:09):
But in the nineteen sixties, thanks to a guy we
all know, Fidel Castro, USDA, came to Belglade, Florida and
encouraged farmers to grow sugarcane. We don't want to buy
any more of that common as sugar ha ha, So
the sugar industry took off in the early nineteen sixties.
So my father was a founding member of a sugar
(11:32):
mill called Sugarcane Growers Cooperative of Florida. We've been growing
sugarcane since nineteen sixty one. I tell people as a joke,
if you're a farmer in Belglade and you don't grow
sugarcane and sweetcorn, you're just stupid.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
They're two thousand acres of sugarcane can't compare to the
size of Florida Crystals, which farms two hundred thousand acres
of sugar in Florida. But Rickross is intimately involved in
Florida sugar, both as a state representative involved in agriculture
policy and as a member of the Sugar Farmers Cooperative. Today,
(12:10):
sugarcane is the biggest and most lucrative crop grown on
the Wroth farm.
Speaker 8 (12:16):
The sugarcane industry is the lynch pin of the vegetable industry.
Vegetable production is very competitive and the price changes daily,
if not weekly. Sugarcane prices are very stable over a
long period of time. It's easier to plan and figure out,
you know, can you make money growing sugarcane with the
(12:38):
current market prices in the system, So sugarcane is a
bond market. Vegetables is the stock market. It fluctuates all
the time, So sugarcane really provides the economic stability. My
bankers love me not because I grow vegetables. They love
me because I grow sugarcane, and I pretty much can estimate,
(13:00):
within a certain amount of reason, you know how much
revenue I'm going to get every year. That makes my
banker happy.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Rick Roth's bankers are happy because sugar prices are guaranteed.
That's in the farm bill. And I want to take
a minute here to explain this because it has a
huge impact on our lives, especially our grocery bills.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
You're feeling it when you're purchasing goods that have sugar
in them, probably more than we all realize. Quite frankly,
sugar is in so many different commodities, and sugars really
has the highest trade protection of any US good, agriculture
or non agricultural.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Kim Janopolis works at the US Government Accountability Office or GAO.
She's a director with their International Affairs and Trade team.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
We pretty much audit the rest of the government. Wherever
the US dollar goes, we go.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
We reached out to Kim because the massive Farm bill
is up for renewal in Congress and it includes the
US sugar program, which guarantees billions to the sugar industry billions.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
The US sugar program has actually been around for hundreds
of years, almost since the revolution.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Back in October, the GAO reviewed the program.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It's got a couple of very key pieces that help
manage the price of sugar and that in turn supports
the US sugar producers and processors. So the first part
to know about is loans. So the US government backs
loans to sugar processors, who in turn provide payments to
(14:37):
sugar producers. And the key part of these loans that's
important to understand is that if the loans were to
be defaulted on, the processors could provide the sugar to
pay back the loans. That helps the price of sugar
domestically stay higher, because if it drops too low, there's
(15:02):
no incentive for the sugar to be processed and sold.
The sugar processors would just use that sugar as collateral
and give that back to the government instead of the
money that they owe on their loans.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Another important part of the sugar program has to do
with international trade and tariffs.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
We have to import sugar because the US does not
produce enough sugar to meet all of the domestic needs.
So when we import sugar, there's a concern that other
countries will sell the sugar to the US at a
rate that's lower than what US producers are getting, so
US producers would lose out.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So to protect the US sugar industry, the government has
another type of price support in the form of tariff
rate quotas. Those quotas determine how much sugar can be
imported from Mexico, for example, at a very low tariff.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Rate, and so there's a significant disincentive for other countries
to send their sugar to the United States because it
would be so expensive. But what that particular tool does,
it also increases the domestic price for sugar because there's
a limited amount of supply, and so supply and demand.
(16:19):
Back to economics one oh one.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
And that in a nutshell is the sugar program. Within
the Farm Bill, we restrict how much foreign sugar can
be sold in the US, and we prop up the
price of domestic sugar. And because of those price support systems,
US sugar farmers are more profitable than farmers in other countries.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
A lot more.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Right now, as we're recording this, the global price of
sugar is about twenty two cents per pound, but in
the US it's forty one cents per pound. And guess
who's baring that cost.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
We found the impact on consumers even outweighs the benefit
to producers and processors. And according to some studies, the
program costs consumers an estimated two point five billion to
three point five billion per year. That's every single year,
(17:14):
billions of dollars.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
You heard that right. The US sugar program benefits sugar
producers more than it benefits consumers. Some economists estimate that
the Funhole family, which owns Florida Crystals, benefits from the
sugar program to the tune of over one hundred and
fifty million dollars a year. It's why they've been nicknamed
the first Family of corporate welfare. This is an antiquated
(17:39):
policy in the Farm Bill that's up for debate right
now in Congress. And here's the thing. The Farm Bill
is only reviewed once every five years. For the sugar industry,
it is the single most important piece of legislation by far,
and it's a great deal for them, but for you
and me. That's why I was so interested talk to
(18:00):
sugar farmer Rick Roth. I wondered how he justifies the
high costs we pay for sugar. So Americans pay more
for sugar than just about anywhere else in the world.
The prices of sugar here are high.
Speaker 8 (18:14):
The reason for that true, that's not true. Well, it's
true to some extent.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
The big sugar growers the United States make a massive profit.
So we still have the person walking through their grocery
store and picking up a pound of sugar, and that
sugar is going to cost them significantly more than it
does in almost any other industrialized nation.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And that's not true.
Speaker 8 (18:37):
That's not true.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Well, as of December twenty twenty three, Americans are paying
almost twice the cost of the international price of sugar. Now,
the sugar program as it exists in the Farm Bill
especially benefits big companies, people like the Funhul family who
own Florida Crystals. It's estimated that the sugar program in
(18:59):
the Farm Bill is worth somewhere between one hundred and
fifty to two hundred million dollars to Florida Crystals. I
think we can both agree that the sugar program is
designed to benefit big producers over small producers.
Speaker 8 (19:17):
Do you agree with that? I agree with that. I
agree the bigger you are, the lower your overhead costs are.
And that's what every farmer is trying to do is
maximize their production and minimize their costs. And as you
get bigger, you are able to do that. So it
does benefit the big producers, but there's no way to
(19:40):
fix that. What the sugar program is is a anti
dumping price support program. One of the big problems you
can easily understand is who is the biggest producer of sugar.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
In the world.
Speaker 8 (19:56):
Brazil.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yes, so.
Speaker 8 (19:59):
Brazil you can produce sugar cheaper than anybody in the
world because they're so big. When you're really really big,
your cost of production go down. So Brazil could dump
sugar into the United States without a sugar program and
in five years there would be no sugar produced in
the United States. So the purpose of the sugar program
(20:20):
is to prevent dumping price of sugar.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
So are you saying that the sugar program and their
large sugar producers are not the reason why Americans pay
more in the grocery store for our sugar.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
What I am saying, is the minimum guarantee price is
at the cost near or at the cost of production.
Why are we not selling sugar in the grocery store
If the guarantee price is nineteen cents a pound, why
are we not selling it for nineteen cents a pound.
You have to refine it, you have to deliver it
(20:59):
of the supermarket going to make a profit. All those
factors are in there. What you're failing to even want
to think about is that in the current scenario world
supply of sugar, the price of sugar is over twenty
cents a pound, which is the minimum guaranteed price, and
the domestic price is forty cents a pound. Because the
(21:20):
cost of distribution and sales and everything else is the
price of sugar right now in the farm bill is
having no impact on what you're paying in the grocery store.
It's other factors. If you were an economist, you would
understand that.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Okay, I'm not an economist, but neither is Rick Roth.
That's why we reached out to Kim Janopolis at the
Government Accountability Office in the first place. I wanted to
fact check some things with her. Rick Roth said, the
farm bill has no impact on the price of sugar
in the grocery store.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
We found that US, whether it's a consumer you and
I buying sugar in the grocery store, or a confection
or making candy or whatever, is paying twice the world
price for sugar in the United States because of the
US sugar program and these price supports and other benefits
(22:18):
that the sugar program gets through the US government and
through the Farm Bill.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
Rick Roth also said that the sugar policy isn't about
propping up US sugar prices. It's actually just preventing other
countries from dumping their sugar here at really low costs.
So would the US market get flooded with really cheap
foreign sugar if the farm bill was significantly changed.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
That's actually not possible. That's not possible. So keep in
mind we have we the US have these agreements with
different countries, and they can't just all of a sudden
one day decide, oh, we're going to double our exports
to the US and there's going to be no prohibition
against that. I mean, they could export more, but it
would be at a significantly higher terror freight. So it's
(23:06):
really not in their best interest because then you know
that their sugar is going to be much much more expensive.
They couldn't just come in and dump all of their sugar.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
In other words, the US has trade agreements with countries
that cover foreign imports to protect our domestic producers. So
even if the farm bill were changed, US sugar farmers
would still be protected.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
There are thousands of sugar producers in the US, and
like I said, this is the most supported program agricultural
or non agricultural. So it's a fairly profitable industry to
be in to be a sugar farmer.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
So Florida state representative and sugar farmer Rick Roth and
I agreed to disagree, but I appreciated that he shared
his views Because the big sugar corporations they don't talk. Instead,
they work behind the scenes. They give to local churches
in Keena Phillips neighborhood to win over residents and local politicians,
(24:08):
and they spread their cash across Washington, d C. You
remember that not only is the Fonhul family famous for
generously donating to both Republican and Democratic members of Congress,
they frequently host fundraisers for presidential candidates. In twenty sixteen,
they held fundraisers for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
(24:30):
According to press reports, peppivun Huel hosted an event for
former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump just hours after
his guilty verdict came down. The billionaires in that room
helped raise millions for Trump's super pac and the Fonnhull
brothers do more than just contribute cash, they call in favors.
(24:51):
In November of twenty twenty two, the US Customs and
Border Patrol issued a ban on sugar imported from the
Dominican Republic by a company called sen Romana over allegations
of forced labor. The ban was a big deal. Not
only did Centron Romana export nearly two hundred million pounds
of sugar to the States, but the company is owned
(25:12):
in part by the Florida based Fanhol family.
Speaker 9 (25:20):
Next time, there's nothing that you can see with your
eyes sometimes when you look out at these workers, these
brigades working, that distinguishes it from what it looked like
on a plantation in the south of the United States
one hundred years ago. So it's really a sad and
hard situation for these workers.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
This episode of Big Sugar is produced by Weekday Fund Productions.
Imagine Audio and Rococo Punch for iHeartMedia. The series is
hosted by me Celesteedley. Big Sugar is produced by Jeff
Eisenman at Weekday Fund Productions and Andrea Assoahe and Catherine
Fenlosa at Rococo Punch. It's executive produced by Karra Welker,
(26:09):
Nathan Kloke and Marie Brenner. The story editor is Emily Foreman.
Sound design and mixing by James Trout. Original music composed
by Troy McCubbin at Alloy Tracks. Additional music by Nicholas Alexander.
Special thanks to novel Our production partner on episodes one
through nine, and Alec Wilkinson, author of the book Big Sugar.
(26:31):
Big Sugar is based on the Vanity Fair article in
the Kingdom of Big Sugar by Marie Brenner
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